Comic Book Review – Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor #2

All Gabriella Gonzalez wanted was to skip her shift at the Laundromat and hang out with her friends. It’s Halloween, and Sunset Park is hosting its first-ever Day of the Dead festival! But her father wouldn’t listen – again – and now Gabby is stuck with a store full of empty washing machines while the rest of the neighbourhood goes wild. But this graveyard shift is living up to its name! Vortexes explode out of the machines, shadowy creatures stalk on the edge of sight, and Gabby finds herself pursued by unearthly forces. Finally, on the longest night of her life, Gabby is trapped in a powerless subway car – and the only thing standing between her and horrific death-by-monster is some skinny white guy in a suit – who’s waving a blue flashlight around! If Gabby survives this – she’s going to kill him!

After the blast of euphoria with Doctor Who making a return to our comic book lives I was interested to see if issue #2 of the Tenth Doctor comic would still be able to pack the same powerful punch and grab factor as issue #1 did. Can Nick Abadzis can keep his pen scribbling away and keep you and I all happy?

Last month was very much Doctor-lite, which isn’t a complaint as I enjoyed his appearances throughout the introduction to Gabby and the setting up of our story – if anything this was very much in the style of old Who. This month’s issue however is a complete turn from that as issue #2 becomes a Doctor issue; continuing from our frantic chase onboard the subway train from “Evil Gabby” and then onwards as the Doctor takes Gabby and opens her eyes to a brand new world via a special hat. We – Gabby also – are introduced to Pranavores and the Cerebravores, who live in the “Psychosphere” that surrounds us,.The Pranavores are essentially the nicer of the two and they feed off the good vibes (positive emotions), whilst the Cerebravores feed off the bad vibes (megative emotions). Both creatures have floated amongst us for some time doing no harm; however the Cerebravores have learnt a rather vicious trick where they can attach themselves to a human victim and proceed to turn them into their worst fear, in-turn generating huge negative emotions to grow even stronger.

As you can probably tell this issue is a fairly dark affair. Not only that but there is also a lot to take in within the confines of thirty pages. When the comic began as a mad-dash train ride a feeling of dread washed over me, hoping that I wasn’t going to be fobbed off with a “Chase Comic”, but I was quickly served the exact opposite. Again Nick has captured David Tennant’s Doctor with his mannerisms and wordplay, though I am finding a slight element frustrating in which the Doctor is trying to distance himself from this possible new Companion as he keeps trying to direct Gabby away; there is obviously a reason for this but it doesn’t stop it from bothering me.

The artwork is brilliantly handled again by Elena Casagrande and Arianna Florean and it’s perfect for this story, from the subway train which screams past to the glowing Orange being peeled for the Pranavore. On top of this we have the fantastic cover by the talented Alice X. Zhang.

A slower, heavier pace than issue #1 this month, however there is more weight and substance given to the story, which balances this comic out rather neatly.

Villordsutch likes his sci-fi and looks like a tubby Viking according to his children. Visit his website and follow him on Twitter.